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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5106223" data-attributes="member: 18253">I suppose it depends what you mean by orcs. If you mean a humanoid foe not related to elves/dwarves/humans/etc. then I still suggest de-orcing them. You can take both the actual stats and the spirit of orcs and by giving them a culture have something far more interesting to work with without creating a new creature. As for stereotypes, they are like cliches. Occasionally useful shorthand but often they sap any excitement from the game. With any seasoned players, you get a lot of baggage from a stereotype. Some of it probably doesn't even apply to your world and so is doing nothing useful. When your players see these humanoid raiders for the first time, do you want them thinking "Oh, orcs. Great. Guess it's that phase of the campaign where we kill random humanoids. Woohoo." or do you want them thinking "Raiders and in better gear than we are in. Can we handle them? Can they be reasoned with? What do they want?" Use that orc label and it may be hard to get them off the first impression. My suggestion is to use the existing "hard rules" material that defines the orcs (in order to save you effort) but work them into your world with a unique personality. Many of the alternative suggestions here seem to be the other way around, live with the stereotypes of the orc label but add hard rules stuff to distinguish them. You can make either work and if you enjoy extending creatures, the latter can be a lot of fun but I think the real problem with the orcs is the stereotype and that many campaigns would be better served investing in personality-distinction rather than mechanics-distinction. Stereotypes are harmless enough for standalone encounters but if you are going to make the creature a major campaign focus, I don't see how they are really helping you.</blockquote>

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